Category: theatre

Michael Billington: “In some quarters, he is still seen as either a steamy, sexual sensationalist or as a tragic poet of frustration and loss. I’ve always seen Williams in rather a different light: as a robust social commentator and a comic writer acutely aware of the absurdity of the human predicament.”

“Growing numbers of stars are unable to keep up with rigorous performance timetables. Illness, strained vocal chords and additional performances, coupled with high demand for star-studded casts, are contributing to the phenomenon, leaving audiences who have forked out hefty sums for shows increasingly disgruntled”

“Touring has long been the model for Broadway shows, which send out national casts, and for larger dance companies and musical ensembles that could not exist if they depended on an audience in only one city. Now regional theaters are exploring it.”

Despite an earlier denial from original choreographer Daniel Ezralow, the producers of the troubled mega-musical have confirmed that, as part of a complete overhaul of the show, they have replaced Ezralow with 27-year-old Chase Brock.

“John Kander, who with Fred Ebb spent four decades creating some of musical theater’s most beloved hits, including Cabaret and Chicago, is teaming up with a 32-year-old playwright and fiction writer, Gregory Pierce, on his first full, new theater collaboration with another writer since the passing of Mr. Ebb in 2004.”

“How to turn the bloody truths of the Iraq war into mass entertainment is a problem that has repeatedly bedeviled Hollywood executives. Even The Hurt Locker, which won the Academy Award for best picture last year, earned only $17 million domestically.” Coming to Broadway, where ticket prices are ten times those of movies, is a play “that starts with a behanding, … and features no less than Uday Hussein clutching the severed head of his brother, Qusay.”

“[For] as long as I can recall – like many French people my age – I’ve always vaguely associated theatre with mandatory cultural education … How has it happened that France has not been able to produce a decent heir to Racine, Ionesco and Feydeau?”

Lyn Gardner: “Perhaps it’s hardly surprising: just as hemlines go down in a recession, maybe artistic directors are inclined to look backwards rather than forwards. Perhaps even more importantly, it is a reminder how much confidence and psychology plays a part in creating the conditions necessary for a theatre to take risks, then reap the rewards.”

“The injured actress, T.V. Carpio, replaced Natalie Mendoza in the role of Arachne. Mendoza quit the musical in December to recover from a concussion she sustained after being hit backstage by a weighted rope.”

“This morning, Bloomberg News reported that producers are now in talks to replace the show’s choreographer, Daniel Ezralow with Chase Brock. … Tonight, Ezralow states that: ‘As far as I know I am the choreographer and aerial choreographer of Spider-Man. The producers have not addressed any change in my status officially.”